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In their season opener, the Kaiserslautern Pikes beat the Darmstadt Diamonds on their home field 26-23. This was a shock to many in the league as the Diamonds were considered a title contender in the Germany Football League’s second division, while the Pikes were the newcomers to the second league after winning last season’s Regional Center Championship (third division).
Pikes Head Coach Jason Nowlin had every reason to be happy.
“We were very disciplined and always believed in ourselves, even after we fell behind,” he said.
It was the middle of the third quarter when the Pikes trailed 6-14. Kaiserslautern had to recover from two quick Darmstadt touchdowns. In the first half, when the defenses dominated the action in front of 900 spectators, only the Pikes brought points on the board. After missing a field goal in the previous drive, quarterback Greg Cross, who joined the team from the University of Pittsburgh, threw a great pass and found wide receiver Timo Grieser in the end zone to take a 6-0 lead. Unfortunately, the Pikes missed the point after.
Though the Diamonds controlled the Pikes’ running game, the Darmstadt offense had a hard time in the first half gaining yards against a aggressive Pikes. In the second half, the Pikes defense seemed to control the game again. Linebacker Brian Watkins, who was all over the field with linebacker Kamil Mazur, stopped a punt on the opponents 1-yard line. The pressure on the Darmstadt offense was big since the Pikes were aggressively going for a safety. But Darmstadt running back Andreas Baumann ran through the middle, found a gap and went 99 yards to a touchdown to give a 7-6 lead for the Diamonds.
Things seemed to run as everybody expected before the game, since the Pikes came in as the underdog. Darmstadt went straight down the field in its next offensive series. After a pass from Shane Sabine to Torsten Hartmann, they took a 14-6 lead. But the Pikes came back. Eric Walton took a hand off and raced 35 yards for the second Pikes touchdown to make it 12-14. A successful two-point conversion evened the score at 14.
Now, it was up to the Diamonds to respond. But Pikes cornerback Roman Knap stopped the home team with an interception to give the Pikes great field position. On fourth down and 5 to go, Greg Cross kept the ball and ran 15 yards for a touchdown for a 20-14 lead for the Pikes. A poor PAT attempt fell short and Darmstadt returned it for two points. The crowd went wild, but with four minutes left in the game Cross destroyed all hopes of a Darmstadt comeback by taking the ball downfield for his second touchdown run. With one minute left, Diamonds quarterback Sabine again found WR Hartmann in the end zone for the final 23-26 score. But Joachim Jäger secured the following onside kick and the Pikes took a knee to end the game. Nowlin was said he was more than satisfied with Cross’ performance — his first match for the club.
“Greg did a good job of controlling our offense and making plays when he had to,” Nowlin said.
Eric Walton finished with 148 yards on 19 carries. On the defensive side of the ball, he pointed out the efforts of the two linebackers, Watkins (five tackles, one sack) and Mazur (seven tackles, two sacks), who were involved in almost every tackle.
“It was a great way to start our season, but if we want to continue to win games, we will have to make improvements in a lot of areas,” Nowlin said.
The Pikes play again Saturday at Holzgerligen versus the Twisters. The Pikes home opener will take place June 9 against Darmstadt.
(by Mortiz Kircher)
